Welcome!You are now one of the proud owners of Plan V, Duke’s Co-op vegetarian
eating club.Although much of the
knowledge needed to operate Plan V is passed down orally from old members to
new in the course of cooking, cleaning, shopping, and dining, this Owner’s
Manual is a way to make available to
all members a comprehensive collection of the knowledge and ideas evolving in
Plan V.

Introduction

Plan
V is a new concept for Duke University, similar to groups that exist at many
other universities across the country.Plan V is a cooperatively-run student eating club created in order to
provide good vegetarian food for students at Duke, as an alternative to Duke
University Food Service meal plans.The way it’s been:ovolacto, Sunday Tuesday Thursday, President and Treasurer, shop at
PIFC, whole foods and organic, 12 to 24 members, cook 3:45-6 pm, eat at 6 pm,
ASDU registered, $40/month

What is a co-op?

The
idea of a cooperative is that people with a common need can organize together
to create their own enterprise to meet that need.So Plan V is essentially a business that we own, operate,
and buy from.The members do all
the necessary work, democratically make all the policy and management
decisions, and buy the product—dinner.In this case, the common need is for good, vegetarian food.But other bonuses Plan V provides
include having greater control over one's meal plan, less bureaucracy, a less
expensive meal plan, and a more social dining experience than in the dining
halls.

The
United States is a capitalist society, which means that the culture is geared
toward preparing people to become wage laborers for corporations.Attitudes and expectations that are
appropriate for life as an “employee” and “consumer” are entirely inappropriate
for membership in acooperative.As an
employee, you take commands from higher-ups and give commands to
subordinates;in a co-op the
members democratically decide the actions that need to be taken, and who shall
carry them out.As an employee or
consumer, you live in a state of dependency on corporations for employment,
goods, and services;in a co-op,
each member is equally responsible for the success of the enterprise, and they
depend on one another.In a
corporation, employees depend on their boss to make sure everyone is doing
their job;in a co-op, each member
is responsible for making sure the others carry out their commitments.

Occasionally
members of Plan V slip into “employee” or “consumer” attitudes, and this causes
problems.They assume that those
members who seem most on top of things must be “in charge”, so they don’t take
responsibility for making sure that the next meal has been planned, that
everyone in their cook crew is signed up for a job, or that they themselves are
signed up for a job.They slip
into a passive and dependent mode, which means they are not fully carrying
their weight in doing all that needs to be done to keep everyone happily fed.

When
someone comes into a new situation with an “employee” attitude, they first try
to figure out what the rules of the game are, and then play it to their
satisfaction.What members of a
co-op have to keep always in mind is that they are writing the rules;Plan V works the way it does because the members made it up.If you want a change, make that up,
too.

Plan
V is actually the first student co-op in the Old South.But student co-ops have been sprouting
up around the rest of the country for a hundred years.The first were eating clubs in Florida
and Texas in the 1890s.The first
student housing co-ops were created in Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Toronto and
elsewhere as a response to the Great Depression.During the 50s, 60s and 70s dozens of student co-ops
developed from Maine to Kansas and on the West Coast.In 1968 they formed a network, the North American Students
of Cooperation.They span from
co-op eating clubs to a 1500 member housing co-op association.

Responsibilities

The
basic work needed to operate Plan V is shopping, cooking, cleaning, writing up
menus, and group decision making.The best way we found to organize the dinner production was to have each
person be a member of a cook-crew for either Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday, and
each cook-crew independently responsible for deciding what to cook and dividing
up the work (shopping, cooking and cleaning) between its members.Members that are part time (one or two
meals a week) could work on a crew every third meal they ate.

POSITIONS AND
RESPONSIBILITIES OF PLAN V MEMBERS

A democratic cooperative depends on
the full participation and contributions of its members.Although there are no guidelines
dictating "duties" and "chores" for members, a cooperative
cannot function without the fulfillment of responsibilities.Below are a list of various positions
of responsibility within PLAN V.The descriptions after each responsibility are flexible and subject to
modification as members find more agreeable and efficient methods.

• MEMBERS:Members are the crux of the group.Without member participation, PLAN V
deteriorates to club or service status. The member is most of all responsible
for offering an active mind, voice and hands.This may include anything from raising concerns, offering
opinions and advice, and lending skills

• COOK CREWS:These are the fundamental
"family units" of PLAN V.A cook crew is responsible for planning, shopping, cooking, and cleaning
up after a meal.Cook crews thus
divide these rotating responsibilities among their crew members according to
individual preference.Where
membership is waning, cook crews need to make sure each activity below is
executed.Below is a list of each
activity:

---PLANNING:generally the entire crew participates in
planning a meal, which may involve browsing through cookbooks, brainstorming,
etc.Different systems:going around the world, other cook
crews, recent meals,

---SHOPPING:usually one shopper is sufficient.A shopper is also responsible for
finding which items (spices, bulk items, etc.) are already available in the
PLAN V cabinets.It is important
that a shopper familiarize themselves withPLAN V buying policies.Generally, most items are bought at the Durham Food Coop,
and thus shoppers are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the Food Coop
as well.

---COOKING:generally, preparing meals requires three
or four cooks.Cookers usually
show up (punctually) two hours before mealtime.

---CLEANING:Cleaning includes washing dishes, surfaces, sweeping the floor, and
throwing out garbage and compost.Unpleasant as it is, it is important that cleaners double over as
amateur mycologists and dispose of rotting food in the refrigerator.Also in the interest of sanitation,
cleaners need to dry dishes and cookware before storing in cabinets; otherwise
the wet dishes support mildew colonies in the warm, stagnant, cabinet air.Usually two cleaners suffice; cleaning
can be facilitated by asking members to pre-wash their dishes in a pot of hot,
soap-water.In the interests of
conserving water, cleaners can wash their dishes in pots of hot water.

• OFFICERS:There are certain tasks that not everybody needs to do
in Plan V, but which have to be
done nevertheless, so we created two officer positions of responsibility for
these tasks:

President:

The
most critical job of the President is to get the club back together again after
winter and summer breaks.This
means convening the first meetings of each semester, getting ads in the
Chronicle and fliers up.

Other
administrative tasks include:

Do
any necessary negotiation with the head of Auxiliary Services regarding
members’ refunds on their DUFS contracts.

Get
an East Campus Center key from Dallas Burnette, and reserve the times Plan V
will be using the ECC.

Reserve
kitchen and dining space from the Union Facilities Committee.

Register
Plan V as a voluntary student organization with ASDU.

Make
any budget requests to ASDU.

Place
an ad in the Blue Devil’s Advocate.

Organize
a table at the beginning of the year at the Potpourri of Student Life.

Place
an entry in the Frosh Orientation Guide.

Submit
members names to the Head of Auxiliary Services and DUFS for refund.

Recruit
a faculty associate when needed.

TREASURER:

Smaller cook crews may require some
doubling up of responsibilities.Shopping usually requires the least effort and can be rotated within a
crew.Other one-time
responsibilities, which generally depend on volunteerism of enthusiastic PLAN
V'ers, include end of the year clean-ups, inventory, recruitment, literature
assembly (like this), and whatever the hell comes to mind that needs some
doing.

Members: ...

Exceptional
Circumstances.If for some reason you can't make your cook crew, find someone from
another crew to switch with, and fill them in on what arrangements your cook
crew has made.If you can't attend
a dinner, then you can request the cook crew to set aside a late-plate for you,
or make up your missed dinner by inviting a guest to a later meal (be sure to
tell that night's cook crew so they know of the extra demand).If you are going to be absent for an
extended period of time, arrange in advance to have your board bill reduced by
that amount.

Cook Crews: ...

Treasurer: ...

Food Policy

When students asked the head of DUFS to switch from Styrofoam
dishware to paper, he said he couldn’t because it would cost more.Whenever there is a separation of
management from consumer as in DUFS, the only ethical concern the manager feels
mandated to deal with is cost.In
the case of co-ops like Plan V, the consumers are the owners and managers, and
so our decisions can reflect the full spectrum of our human interests.

Although
the basic “ground rule” of Plan V is that it serves vegetarian food, this still
leaves many choices we must make.The following are some of the usual issues that arise:

•Will
we have milk and eggs?Milk and
eggs are good sources of protein and some minerals, are important in the
aesthetics of numerous dishes, and are a part of mainstream diet.While in principle it is possible to
obtain them without harm to animals, in practice they involve factory farming
and the slaughter of males.Grain
is fed to livestock which would more efficiently feed people directly.

•Should
we buy food at a supermarket, Wellspring, the Food Co-op?Issues involve prices, wasteful
packaging, the diversion of profits to capitalists, support of a community
economy, and the kind of products available.

•Will
we have refined products or whole products, in our grains, pasta, flour, and
sweeteners?Refined foods are part
of the mainstream diet, and in some cases may be aesthetically preferred.But refining removes many nutrients (in
fact thiamin was discovered when white rice became available to the Chinese
masses and they suffered an epidemic of deficiency diseases).In “enriched” foods some of these are
added back, but other components that are left out, such as fiber, and
selenium, are discovered to have important nutritional value.

•Do
we buy organic or chemically grown foods?Organic foods are usually, though not always, more expensive than
chemically grown food.But organic
food is free of pesticide residues, does not contribute to contamination of
ecosystems, and its purchase helps develop the sustainable agricultural sector.

•Do
we stick to staples or have more deluxe dishes?Pleasure is a culturally contended issue, and some people
prefer to eat austerely, while others like to make a feast.While not a cause of great strife
within Plan V, the issue enters in more subtle decisions about meal planning.

•Do
we honor different boycotts?Different groups call for boycotts of certain products because of
ecological, labor, health, or political concerns.Even without organized boycotts, what we buy affects other
people’s well being and the environment.Some of the issues include:exploitation of farmworkers; diversion of agriculture in third world
countries from growing food for their people to growing food for sale to the
first world;destruction of
rainforest for export agriculture;killing of dolphins in fishing;profiting the economic strength of tyrannies(e.g. Chile, S.Africa).

•What
health concerns should we deal with, e.g. fat, protein, aluminum, salt,
macrobiotic, etc.?Many mainstream
culinary practices have been found or are suspected of causing disease.Known hazards are high dietary fat, and
low fiber.Aluminum from cookware
has been suspect in several neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s.See Nutrition for more on this.

•Should
we buy only produce that is in season, or grown locally?Incredible as it may seem, plants,
which is where Plan V’s food comes from, are tied in their growth patterns to
the seasons, so that getting certain foods out of season requires more
technological intervention, with its attendant problems.Technology includes canning, shipping
food from the southern hemisphere, hydroponic gardening, and cold storage.Storing and shipping food requires more
pesticide and energy use.Buying
food that is not grown locally entails the same costs.

•
Do we buy in bulk or in packaging?Packaging is a large part of the solid waste problem.Sometimes it is convenient but
sometimes it is only part of marketing.Only the Food Co-op has much available in bulk.

In
DUFS, it is impossible to steer its food policy from mainstream American
dietary habits.In Plan V we can
do as we please.But even in Plan
V, the mainstream still has the power of habit.Also, our institutions do not make information about all
these various consequences of food choices available to us, so we have to dig
in order to raise these issues.

The
Quaker idea behind consensus is that each person can have a piece of the
truth.So if your desires
regarding food buying conflict with what is done in Plan V, it is very
important that you raise the issue with the group.When someone makes a proposal that may seem way out, it is
important not to rush to judgement, but to put some care into investigating the
factual validity, or moral importance of what they are saying.Most concerns can be accommodated by
being more thoughtful in purchasing or cooking, or adding diversity to what
Plan V cooks (e.g. a vegan alternative dish).Some issues, however, may require in depth discussion or
changes in cherished habits.A
willingness to deal with such issues will greatly enrich what you get out of
Plan V.

Finances

Plan
V is financially independent of Food Service.The money to buy the food comes directly from the
members.Members on DUFS can get a
refund from their meal contract.In 1989 the members got $5.25 per meal they ate with Plan V refunded
from their DUFS contract, which amounted to $220 for the semester.

$/hour

To
get the refunds, we submit to Joe Pietrantoni (head of Auxiliary Services) a
list of the members of Plan V, indicating how many meals they will be having,
which is certified by the President, Treasurer, and Faculty Associate of Plan
V.Then the administration begins
the paperwork of issuing refunds, which after a few weeks are sent to the
address of whoever paid for the DUFS contract (student or parent).If anyone drops out of Plan V
mid-semester, we have to notify Pietrantoni, and they will lose the refund forthe time after they stopped eating with
Plan V.

If
any money is left over at the end of the semester, after having paid all our
bills, the membership can choose to do whatever it wishes with it.Usually a certain fraction is rebated
to each member according to the amount they paid, while the rest is used for
buying new equipment, and leaving some money for starting up at the beginning
of the next semester.Last
semester we decided to charge ourselves a one time fee of $10 to buy the
necessary pots and pans.Plan V
isrequesting $307 from ASDU to
cover equipment and cookbook costs;whether or not we get it will affect what we need to do for
capitalization this year.

Governance

Plan
V is intentionally non-hierarchical-- there is no head honcho who runs it;we all do it together.For maximum consideration of each
person's needs, we have made decisions by mutual agreement, i.e. consensus,
rather than having a majority overrule the minority.That way, we make decisions the way a group of friends
usually decides things, rather than how a political group does.There are two distinct positions of
responsibility we decided on: the President and Treasurer.The President is responsible for
dealing with the administration and for starting the group up at the beginning
of the year.Jonathan Kimmelman
volunteered for this last year.The Treasurer handles finances, receiving payments, disbursing cash for
shopping, issuing rebates, and maintaining an inventory of equipment.Plan V has its own bank account at
NCNB.We need to pick a new
Treasurer for this year.

Consensus

Nutrition

Sound
vegetarian nutrition is pretty simple:the bulk of one's calories and protein should come from whole grains
(rice, wheat, corn, millet) and legumes (beans, peas, lentils, tofu, tempeh,
etc) with possible dairy supplements;for getting vitamins and minerals one should get plenty of vegetables
and fruits.Some vegetarian
recipes lack the grain/legume complements and are deficient in protein (e.g. a
potato centered dish), so care should be taken to make a balance of
dishes.Refined products (white
rice, white sugar, white flour) have had major components of the nutrients
removed, and are not suitable staples for vegetarian diets.

The
latest research finds that fat (oils and solid) is a main contributor to heart
disease, stroke and bowl and breast cancers, so keeping the fat down is a very
good thing.Most cheeses have
enormous quantities of fat.Low fat (1/2%) cottage cheese is a great food, and where possible,
lowfat versions of mozzarella, milk and other dairy should be used.Most quantities of oils given in the
recipe books Plan V uses can be cut by 1/2 to 2/3 without any problem.

How to Plan Meals

Sanitation

In spite of all the wonders of medical science,
people can still give each other diseases and be poisoned by rotten food.If you have a cold, the flu, or
intestinal flu, you should find a substitute if you are on cook crew, out of
consideration to others who you can infect through food preparation.If you have mononucleosis or hepatitis
A, not only should you never
handle the group’s food, but you should bring your own dinnerware and utensils
to eat with, since these are much more serious diseases, transmitted mainly
through saliva, and more difficult to sterilize from the dinnerware.This is a standard hygiene policy for
student eating co-ops.In general,
be sure to thoroughly clean dishes and cookware.

By
not handling meat, you eliminate most hazards of contamination from food.When plants and dairy become
contaminated from decay, you can usually see and smell it.It may go without saying, but you
should not use moldy products, because molds produce a variety of toxic
chemicals, including neurotoxins and carcinogens, especially aspergillus, which
grows on grains, corn, and peanuts.The only other health hazard is from pesticide residues on foods.Always wash vegetables before using
them, buying organic when feasible.

COOK-CREW TIPS

1.Planning a Meal—This is best
done one week in advance, by the whole cook crew gathering 15 min. before
dinner is served and deciding what the menu will be, and who will do shopping,
cooking, and cleaning.Rotation of
jobs is good so that everyone gains the knowledge for each part of the
operation.

•A basic ground rule for the crew should be:unless you arrange to shop or clean,
the crew expects you to be cooking.If you will be absent that day, it is your responsibility to find a
substitute from another crew.

•Recipe books are in the right cupboard.Multiply the amounts of ingredients to
the numbers you need.Be sure
there is a protein source in a main dish (legumes, tofu, or dairy)—tofu can
often be added to a sauce or dish if protein is lacking in the recipe.

•Be sure to make a non-dairy alternative when the
main dish is dairy.This can be
done by substituting soy cheese or tofu for cheese, or leaving the eggs out of
one batch, or just making a different dish.

•Shopping takes around an hour, sometimes more, so
best to start before 2:30 on the day of the crew.

•Be careful to note if the recipe calls for beans;
these need to start soaking the day before.

•The Treasurer should give you a budgetary
target;try to stay under it if
you can, but it’s not absolute;if
you are way under it, think of goodies you can get to spice up the meal—fruits,
dessert, wild stuff.

•When you go to check out at the Co-op, tell the
checker this is for Plan V;ask
for the ledger notebook, and record the purchase amount, sign and date it; the
checker should leave a note of the amount in the cash register, but bring the
receipt back to the Treasurer.

•Buy in bulk rather than in small packages where
possible.It’s best to get whole
grains rather than white, with flour, rice, pasta, bread.If it’s not too much more money, try to
get the organic alternative.

•Leave the groceries in the kitchen, with the
shopping list or menu sheet.

3.Cooking—It takes about 2 1/4
hours to cook, though sometime much less.Try to be on time, so as to be fair to the others on the crew.

•Memorize the combinations of the locks on the
cupboards so you can open them.We
have lost equipment, so we need to keep them locked, unfortunately.

•You may need to poke around the cabinets to find the
utensils or food stuffs you need.Creativity may be needed in adopting our equipment to the needs at hand.

•Get any large amounts of water you need to boil
heating right away, since it takes a long time on the burners.

•Find out what will take the longest to cook and
begin working on that.Look for
times when you will be waiting on one thing to work on another.Pie crusts should always be started
first.Watch out for any
scheduling conflicts with different dishes using the oven.You may need to get creative in
shuffling items on the stove and oven for complex meals.

•Many recipes call for much more oil (unhealthy to
eat much of) than you need, so try making due with less oil.

•Wash all produce.

•Chopping vegetables can be a major bottleneck if you
do it one slice at a time;usually
it is good enough to just put the whole amount on the chopping board and chop
at it till the pieces are small enough.

•Spinach is full of dirt, and needs to be washed out
by a bath, not a shower:break off
the apices, fill a bowl and dunk the leaves, pull them out, and look at the
water to see if there is grit.Repeat until no more grit comes out.

•To use garlic, squish a clove lightly with the side
of a knife blade—then you can pull off the paper;squish it further and then dice it.

•Pour away the water that beans are soaking in, and
refill with fresh water to cook them.This is the secret to reducing our contribution to the greenhouse
effect.

•Never cook with tap hot water—it is likely to have
lead contamination from solder in the heater.

4.Serving—Just a few
hints:Check to make sure
everything is out of the oven, and don’t forget things you may have been
chilling in the fridge, e.g. water pitchers, ice cream.

•The serving utensils are kept in the metal box in
the cabinet.

5.Cleaning Up—The dish rack is
in the lower left cabinet, with all the cleaning supplies.

•Thorough cleaning is critical in protecting our
health.Mono and hepatitis-A can
spread through contaminated dishes.Clean and rinse with hot water and scrub everything thoroughly.

•A workable system: wipe off dishes into compost
pile; put the big pot in the right sink to hold the soapy water; one person
washes the dishes and puts them in the left sink; a second person rinses and
puts them in the dish rack; towel drying is not necessary except for plates.

•Don’t throw out plastic utensils or containers that
are reusable.

•Food scraps can be returned to nature (composted) by
scattering them in the bushes across the lawn, never by the house (it attracts
rodents and roaches).

•Check the refrigerator for ancient moldy left-overs
and compost them too.

•Put things away in their labeled place, or the next
cook crew will be confounded.

•Wipe the serving table, the kitchen table, the
counters and the stove.Sweep the
floor, too.We can be fined for
leaving any mess.

•Rinse out the dish towels and drape them to dry in
the cupboards.

•It is
very important to lock all the cabinets when done.The locks need to be spun to lock them.

NOW THAT YOU ARE
ABOUT TO BEGIN COOKING, TAKE A MOMENT, RELAX, AND ENJOY!YOU ARE EMBARKING ON A MOST ANCIENT
HUMAN CREATIVE PROCESS.BEFORE YOU
ARE THINGS THAT CAME OUT OF THE GROUND.IN A COUPLE OF HOURS, YOU WILL HAVE MADE THEM INTO A FEAST.

Outreach

The Story of Plan V

Plan V was organized by Lee Altenberg, a postdoc in
Zoology, Spring semester 1989.As
an undergrad he had lived in Lothlorien, a vegetarian co-op house of 57
students at UC Berkeley, and as a grad student, at Synergy and Columbae Co-ops
at Stanford.He had wanted to
start a vegetarian co-op ever since arriving at Duke in Fall 1987, but could
not find a facility.Rob Clough of
Epworth told him about the East Campus Center’s kitchen in Fall 1988, and he
looked into getting it for a vegetarian co-op eating club.The administration waffled on letting
it be used, because it questioned the condition of the kitchen, but they
eventually o.k.’d it.

Lee
recruited interest from the circles he knew—the Student Activist Co-operative,
ECOS, Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Vegetarian Club, and
advertised on campus.Lee
originally thought of naming it “Plan G” since DUFS had Plans A-F, but Art
Clemente suggested “Plan V” for “vegetarian”.Two co-op alums from Brown U., Bruce and Karen Baker,
responded to a flier Lee put up at the Durham Food co-op, and they cooked
lasagna for the organizational meeting at which about 20 people showed up.The first dinner was cooked at Gilbert
Addoms (as permission for the East Campus Center hadn’t yet been given).After that it was in ECC.The first semester’s membership
stabilized at 14.

The
most famous dinner was when a storm knocked out the power for the whole
campus.The quiches had just been
put in the oven.The cook crew
took them out, poured the custard back in a bowl, and trucked it and the crusts
over to Lee’s apartment to bake.They picked up wine, French bread and candles at the market.Nobody could study anyway in the
darkness, so people just hung out.Finally, by 8 o’clock or so, the dinner was ready, and the power came
back on.But people turned all the
lights off, and everyone sat down to an elegant candlelight dinner.For the last meal of the semester, the
last day of classes, Plan V had a “bread baking study break” open to the
campus.They started baking bread
at 7pm, using the “sponge method” of the Tassajara Bread Book, with people studying while the bread was rising,
and at 1am, 8 loaves of bread came steaming out of the oven, and people feasted
and said sentimental good-byes.

In
the fall of 1989, we recruited at the “Potpourri of Student Life” and Plan V
increased its membership to 24.At
the organizational meeting people were rearing to go, and the first dinner was
that week.Bruce the Treasurer had
left, and nobody else was enthusiastic about doing it, and it was a much bigger
job now.So the members decided to
give compensation in the form of free board to the Treasurer.Steering committee.Compost proposal.The number dropped to about 20 in Spring semester, with some going to
Beaufort or doing sports.For some
reason, Tuesday crew had problems getting its act together, and one day, no one
showed up.So the rest ordered
pizza from Pizza Peddlers.The
show must go on.

At
the end of Spring 1990, enough members were going to be around over summer that
they decided to continue Plan V through the summer.They were able to recruit several friends as new members,
and even some American Dance Festival students.

The reasons for eating meals without meat
are widely varied, but I will try to condense them here.

1) BIOCENTRISM

Animals have
inherent rights to fend for themselves in a natural, non human-centered world,
and they should not be subjected to factories where they have sometimes very
limited movement and where they live only to get "beefed up" for
slaughter.This particular view
does allow that humans who naturally hunt and kill animals in "the
wild" for food are within theirproper natural place.It is
only unnatural "factory farming" which is unnecessarily cruel that a
biocentrist objects to.If it
wasn't for large-scale factory farming the types of cows and chickens we see
today would not even exist.They
have been bred strictly to suit human desires, and this is clearly an
alteration of natural evolution.

2) COMPASSION FOR ANIMALS / AMIMALS' RIGHTS

Strict
believers of this view hold that all killing of animal life is
unnecessary and cruel in itself, whether it be in slaughterhouses or in the
jungle.A trip to a slaughterhouse
(possible Plan V field trip? - who said we didn't know how to have fun?) would
quickly convert many to this view.The ability of animals to live free from the threat of being confined in
a cage for life or from being blown away by a rifle isthe primary consideration.Meat is murder, basically.

3)ENVIRONMENTAL
/ WORLD HUNGER IMPACT

A meat-centered
diet is very inefficient in terms of land usage and anoverwhelming amount of grains and soybeans
grown in the developed nations goes for animal feed instead of human food.The return on that investment in grain
is very low, with the animals yielding in the products no more than a small
fraction of the nutrients they consume ("Vegetarian Question and
Answer," Animal's Agenda, October 1986).A lot of beef also comes from Central America, where
the cattle industry has been involved in the wholesale destruction of tropical
rain forests.Huge tracts of
rainforest are cleared by bulldozers to make way for grazing pasture for
cattlewhich is then sold to the
United States.Rainforests
are a key factor in world ecology and are being destroyed simply for cheap
burgers. ("You Are What You Eat," Animals' Agenda, March
1986).This is why there have been recent protests against such fast-food giants
as Burger King, which has been buying large quantities of cheap, Central
American beef.

4)HEALTH CONSIDERATIONS

We've all heard
the warnings about the dangers of eating too much fatty red meat.But few have considered total
vegetarianism as the healthiestoption.But, according to
some, "a vegetarian diet based on vegetables, grains and fruits is the
optimal plan for nourishing the human body.This program provides ample nutrients while keeping the
cholesterol intake nil, total fat consumption low, and protein ingestion
adequate but modest . . . Countless studies have shown that vegetarians -
vegans [non-dairy eaters] in particular - have lower blood pressures, lower
cholesterol levels, and less obesity than comparable omnivores.There is less incidence of heart
disease, kidney failure, adult-onset diabetes and several types of cancer
(breast and colon in particular) among vegetarians; and the life expectancy of
vegetarian groups studied - Seventh Day Adventists, Trappist monks and others -
is generally graced with precious extra time" ("Healthy and
Humane", Animals' Agenda, July/August 1986).

Of course, any vegetarian diet must be
planned to ensure proper nourishment and balance of foods.A vegetarian diet of twinkies and
potato chips won't quite cut it.So the menu manager should have at least a minimal knowledge of food
balancing in a vegetarian or semi-vegetarian diet.For instance, over-reliance on dairy products could spell
trouble health-wise.Some
vegetarians have gone a step further and eat a vegan (pronounced vee-gun) diet
which excludes dairy products.Soybean products, such as soy milk, are a good, healthy substitute for
most dairy products.The vegan
diet is also based on different views - fromthe health perspective to the animal rights perspective
which points out that many cows that produce milk and chickens that produce
eggs live horrid lives in small, disease-ridden pens.And that's no fun.

DECISION MAKING AND CONSENSUS

Don't be afraid to have workshops on
decision making.The process will
work much better if it is well understood.

(The following is lifted from the
1978 edition of Living In Syn, which, in turn, lifted it from the
now-dufunct Stanford manual called Organize)

No matter what the process, it is
important that everyone in the group knows exactly how the decisions are
made.Once they are made it is
invaluable to have someone repeat the decision to the group so everyone really
knows what has been decided.It's
not a bad idea to write down decisions, nor is it bad to have a minute of
silence so everyone can think over the decision after it's made and see if they
still feel good about it.

CONSENSUS DECISION MAKING does not mean that everyone thinks the decision is
the best possible one or even that it will work.What it means is that in coming to the decision, no one felt
that her/his position was misunderstood or that it wasn't given a proper
hearing.It also means that the
final decision doesn't violate a member's fundamental moral standards because
if it did they would be obligated to block consensus.Consensus only works if there is a high level of shared
assumptions and if the people involved understand the process and are willing
to accept decisions they don't necessarily find to be the best because they
trust in the collective judgement of the group and they believe that everyone
has heard and understood their reservations.

Voting is a means of choosing one
alternative from several.Consensus building, on the other hand, is the process of synthesizing
elements together.It is ideally
the synthesizing of the ideas of every member of the group into one
decision.We see it as a higher
level decision-making process than voting.By higher level we mean not only that it will achieve better
solutions, it will also promote the psycho-social growth of group members and
of the group as a whole.

Voting implies a certain model of
human nature.People are seen as
antagonistic.It is a win/lose
model.Some people inevitably lose
and sulk away until their next chance to get back at the winners and become
winners themselves.Voting is
based on the will of the majority, or whatever fraction is chosen.It is in essence a quantitative mode .
. .

Consensus is based on a different theory
of human nature.People can work
together.People can bridge
distances and synthesize contradictory ideas.People are able to peacefully talk out their differences and
reach mutually satisfactory positions.It is the opposite of voting because it is qualitative.One person's strongly held beliefs can
sway the entire group.No ideas
are lost.Each member's input is
valued as possible solutions.

Consensus has one other valuable
aspect.The goal of every decision
making process is not just to decide on a solution, but to carry out that plan
of action.Without subsequent
action decisions are totally hollow.This is often overlooked . . . It has been shown that a person's
commitment to any decision is in proportion to their sense of ownership or
investment in that decision.Consensus attempts to develop investment from all members of a group,
not just a majority . . .

There are a number of real potential
problems with a consensus model of decision making.Achieving consensus should never be covert or assumed.Consensus must always be checked in a
direct manner.Otherwise it can
become much more repressive than voting.

Consensus clearly takes more time
than a simple vote.But the added
time can be viewed in relation to the increased understanding each member of
the group will have about the issue and the increased probability of the
decision being carried out . . .

Most deadlocked situations are mixed up
with a set of emotions . . . The group must learn to deal with all levels of
conflict, personal as well as ideological.If this does not happen, then those unaddressed feelings
will continually block progress . . . So as a last resort, safety mechanism,
the

collective should establish a back-up
decision making method if consensus cannot be reached in some pre-determined
length of time.

Plan V is organized as a mutual
benefit organization to enable members of the Duke University community to
cooperatively provide themselves with a vegetarian meal plan.Moreover, Plan V is an educational
institution for students to learn about vegetarian cooking, issues, and
resources, and to develop skills in cooperation and self-management.

2.MEMBERSHIP

A)Membership in Plan V is open to any member of the Duke
community.

B)All labor for the meal service, including cooking, shopping,
and cleaning, is provided by the membership in an equitable manner.

C)Membership in good standing in Plan V will require that the
member fulfill his or her work obligations and pay the membership fees.

3.DECISION MAKING

A)All decisions made by Plan V will be made by agreement of
the membership, including policies on the extent and content of the meal
service, the election of officers, the use of funds, the labor and membership
fee requirements and evaluation of their fulfillment, and these By-Laws.

B)Each member may at any time place a new proposal before the
membership.

C)The membership may delegate discretionary powers to its
members as it sees fit.

D)A majority of the membership shall constitute the required
quorum for making decisions on Plan V policies.

4.REDUCTIONS IN DUKE UNIVERSITY FOOD SERVICE CONTRACT
REQUIREMENTS.

A)Under the agreement made with Assistant Vice President for
Auxiliary Services, Joe Pietrantoni, members of Plan V in good standing shall
be eligible to receive a reduction in their Duke University Food Service
contract requirements at the base rate of the price of the
"all-you-can-eat" meal service in the Blue-and-White Room.For Spring semester, 1989, at the DUFS
price of $5.25, and the current service level of Plan V (3 dinners per week),
the amount of the reduction for the 14 week Spring 1989 semester shall be
$220.50.

B)The names of members of Plan V in good standing seeking
reduction in their DUFS contract requirement will be certified by the
Treasurer, President, and Faculty Associate of Plan V and submitted to DUFS or
the appropriate office, and the amount of the reduction refunded by the
Bursar's Office.

C)Any member whose work or financial obligations to Plan V go
unfulfilled for over two weeks will lose their Plan V membership.The Treasurer or President will then
submit their name and the date that membership was revoked to DUFS.Their DUFS contract reduction will then
be prorated to the number of weeks they were members in good standing of Plan
V.

5.OFFICERS

A)The following officers shall be elected by the
membership:President, Treasurer,
and Faculty Associate.

B)Duties:

1)President:Starting-up the club after any interim break in its
operation, and certifying membership in good standing for DUFS contract
reductions.

2)Treasurer:Collection of member fees, disbursing of funds, maintaining
an inventory of the assets of Plan V, accounting and all related financial
responsibilities, reporting the financial status of Plan V to the membership,
and certifying membership in good standing for DUFS contract reductions.The books and records of Plan V may be
examined upon request.

3)Faculty Associate:Certifying membership in good standing
for DUFS contract reductions.

Agreement with Auxiliary Services
on

DUFS Contract Reductions for Plan
V members

1.Membership in good standing in Plan V will require that the
member fulfill his or her work obligations and pay the membership fee.

2.The work obligation to Plan V consists of working one day
per week doing rotations on the jobs of cooking, shopping, and clean-up.

3.The membership fee for the current Plan V service level of
three dinners per week is currently set at $40 per month.

4.Members of Plan V in good standing shall be eligible to
receive a reduction in their Duke University Food Service contract requirements
at the base rate of the price of the "all-you-can-eat" meal service
in the Blue-and-White Room.At the
current DUFS price of $5.25, and the current service level of Plan V (3 dinners
per week), the amount of the reduction for the 14 week Spring 1989 semester
shall be $220.50.

5.The names of members of Plan V in good standing seeking
reduction in their DUFS contract requirement will be certified by the
Treasurer, President, and Faculty Associate of Plan V and submitted to DUFS or
the appropriate office, and the amount of the reduction refunded by the
Bursar's Office.

6.Any member whose work or financial obligations to Plan V go
unfulfilled for over two weeks will lose their Plan V membership.The Treasurer or President will then
submit their name and the date that membership was revoked to DUFS.Their DUFS contract reduction will then
be prorated to the number of weeks they were members in good standing of Plan
V.

To:Joe
Pietrantoni, Asst. Vice President, Auxiliaries

From:Plan
V Eating Club

Date:September
29, 1989

Re:Member
Certification for DUFS Refunds for Fall Semester 1989

Attached
is the list of members in good standing of Plan V who are requesting refunds
from their DUFS contracts at the agreed to rate of the price of an
all-you-can-eat dinner in the Blue and White Room (currently $5.50) per dinner
they eat with Plan V.

There
are now three levels of meal plan with Plan V:1, 2, and 3 dinners per week.Plan V will operate Fall Semester from September 3 to
December 7, for a total of 14 weeks.Hence the amounts for the refunds are:$77 for one dinner/week members, $154 for two dinner/week
members, and $231 for three dinner/week members.

(Only the funding for cookbook purchases was approved by the ASDU
Program Committee.)

PLAN V INVENTORY8/90

QuantityDescription

Security of the 1st World:

2Combination
Lock:#1

4Combination
Lock:#2

Cookware:

1 ea.Baking
Pans, steel, sm, med, lg.

1Bowl,
stainless stl, lg

1Callender

1Cast
Iron Skillet (large)

1Ceramic
Casserole Pot w/ 2 lids

1 2/2Cutting
board, wooden

2Loaf
pans

8Pie
pans, steel

3Pie
pans, aluminum

3Pitchers,
plastic, w/ lids

1Pot,
aluminum

1Pot,
Cu Bottom, shallow

1Pot,
Cu Bottom,medium

1Pot,
Stnls steel, 4 gal. w/ lid

1Sauce
Pot, Cu Bottom (1 cup)

1Skillet,
Stnls steel, med.

1Steamer

1Teflon
Pot w/ lid

2Woks,
sm

1Wok
ring

Utensils:

1Bottle
opener/ Cork screw

1Box,
metal, for utensils

1Can
Opener

1Eggbeater

1Grater,
multiplex

4Knives,
(cutlery), stnls steel

1Knife
sharpener

1Knife
sharpener, stone (unassembled)

2Ladles

1Measuring
cup, glass, 8 cups

1Measuring
cup, plastic trasnparent, 2 cups

1Measuring
cup, plastic, 4 cups

1 ea.Measuring
cups, stnls steel,1/8,1/4 cup

Measuring
spoons:

51 Tbsp

21 Tsp

21/2Tsp

11/4Tsp

11/8Tsp

1Pealer

1Rolling
pin, wooden

4Serving
spoons, plastic

4Serving
spoons, steel

1Spatula,
plastic

1Spatula,
rubber

1Spatula,
steel

1Tongs

1Wooden
spoon

Mechanized Americana:

1Cuisenart
including:2 rotar blades,

2
grater blades, 2 slicer blades,

various
assorted parts...

1Machine
with matching eggbeaters

Dining items:

18Bowls,
ceramic to plastic to wooden

24Glasses,
generally plastic

23Plates,
ceramic

47Fork(s),
stnlss stl

48Knives,
stnlss stl

44Spoons,
stnlss stl

Plastic Storage/ Misc.:

1Brush
(paint)

1Container,
medium "tupperware"

2Containers
w/ lids, bucket size

1Container
w/out lid, transparent, 1.5 liter

1Drying
rack

Misclellaneous bottles, lids, caps, plastic containers

for bulk
buying at coöp.

1Role
of masking tape

Library:

Assorted
index-card recipes

Book o'
Whole Meals

PIFC
literature/ Plan V literature

Cuisinart operator manual

Cuisinart recipes

Diet for
a Small Planet

Enchanted Broccoli Forest

Laurel's
Kitchen

Moosewood Cookbook

Vegetarian Epicure

Vegetarian Epicure, pt. 2

Compost Pile and Herb Garden Proposal

To:Kieth
Stewart, Facilities Planning and Management

From
:Plan V
Co-op Eating Club, East Campus Center

Date:November
19, 1989

Plan
V generates a modest amount of food scraps in its cooking operations in the
East Campus Center.We are aware
of the growing solid waste disposal problem in the Durham area and in general,
and wish find a more ecologically responsible use of our food scraps.Therefore we would like to build a
compost pile nearby for them.The
pile will consist of a 3' wide, 3' high circle of welded wire into which the
food scraps, leaves, and soil will be mixed.The welded wire will allow entry of oxygen and thus keep the
pile aerobic and quick-decomposing.If the pile needs to be turned, this is easily accomplished by pulling
up the wire, placing next to the pile,and loading the pile back in.Because no permanent structure is proposed, if the pile become
problematic it can quickly be disposed of.

The
location which appears to be the most unobtrusive is at the end of hedge which
goes behind the East Campus Center (see diagram).It is hidden by hedges, out of the way of the lawn mowers,
and over 100 feet from the nearest building.

To
complete the nutrient cycle of the compost, we wish to plant a small herb
garden near the East Campus Center (see diagram).The garden would be a 5' by 10' French raised bed, to grow
some of the herbs we use in cooking.

Please
call or write Dr. Lee Altenberg, Dept. of Zoology, 383-5327, regarding approval
of this proposal.We wish to
proceed by February 12, 1990 if possible.

P.R. Materials

From the Residential Life
“Programming Menu”, under the “Gastronomics” section:

Vegetarian Dining.Students desiring more than the
vegetarian options available to them under DUFS plans A-F have created “Plan
V”, a co-operative eating club in the East Campus Center.Members take turns planning and
cooking vegetarian dinners together.DUFS rebates are available to members.The Student Activities Office has information about how to
join.

From the Blue Devil’s Advocate:

Plan V differs from DUFS meal Plans A
through F in a big way:Plan V is
a student-run eating club created to bring gourmet vegetarian dining to
Duke.Plan V is run democratically
by its members, who chose its menus and cooperative do the cooking, shopping,
and cleaning.Members’ DUFS
contracts are reduced by $5.25 for every meal that they eat with Plan V, while
Plan V dinners cost members about $3.The club dines under chandelier in the East Campus Center, and is as
much a social group as it is a meal plan.Plan V gives its members knowledge of vegetarian cooking, nutrition, and
resources.Contact Jonathan
Kimmelman.

From ASDU Recognition Request:

Members
of Plan V will cooperatively provide themselves a vegetarian meal plan.All labor and management will be
perfored by the members.Choice of
food, menus, vendors, and all Plan V policies will be democratically decided by
the members.Plan V will be an
educational institution for students to learn about vegetarian cooking, diet,
issues and resources.